Plush fabrics are generally produced by knitting machines, also called artificial wool knitting machines. The techniques of using circular knitting machines to produce plush fabrics are known in the art. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,987 has latch needles located in a cylinder and a plurality of sinkers located horizontally on a needle dial that interact with each other to hold a plush thread on the front edge of the sinkers to form a longer loop.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,128,930, 6,094,944 and 5,463,882 basically include latch-less cylinder needles located in a cylinder, latch needles located on a needle dial and a cutting unit that interact to produce plush fabrics. The loop is formed on the hook of the latch-less cylinder needle, and is severed by two sinkers that have a blade on the front side and slide on two sides of the cylinder needle to form the plush.
In the U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,128,930 and 5,463,882, the length of the plush is determined by the interval of the hook of the cylinder needle and the edge of the needle dial. In general, the plush fabrics produced by such techniques have plush length about 3 mm. To make toys and puppets with the artificial furs or pelts, the plush length of 3 mm cannot create a real-like appealing look. To increase the plush length, the interval of the hook of the cylinder needle and needle dial edge must be greater. This may be accomplished by increasing the diameter of the cylinder. Then the sinker ring to hold the blade on the periphery of the cylinder also must have a greater diameter. As a result, the relative position and the dimensions of the blades and cylinder needles have to be changed. It will result in a greater gap between the blade and the cylinder needle and make severing of the loop difficult or impossible.